TASER: Trial Evaluation

TASER has been available to all Authorised Firearms Officers (AFOs) since September 2004 as a less lethal alternative for use in situations where a firearms authority has been granted in accordance with criteria laid down in the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Manual of Guidance on Police Use of Firearms. Since 20 July 2007 Authorised Firearms Officers in England and Wales have also been able to use TASER in a wider set of circumstances. These officers are now able to deploy TASER in operations or incidents where the use of firearms is not authorised, but where they are facing violence or threats of violence of such severity that they would need to use force to protect the public, themselves or the subject.